Email from John Adams, writing from Australia.
Sent via the Internet: Friday, 24. December 1999:-

Christmas in Australia is the opposite season to yours
in France. So here it is normally stinking hot - however
this year the temperature is struggling to get above 25 C,
and the nights have been as low as 4 C.

My 'French Connection' is through my wife Jacqueline,
who was born in Brittany in 1943 but has been in Australia
since 1971. She claims that she would never return to
France, but she watches the French news on satellite TV
every morning.

I am an Australian born and bred, and have only been out
of the country once - and that was to meet my new relations
following my marriage. I would quite happily live in France
- actually my Australian pension would go further, and I
love the food - although the crowning achievement of my
first visit was to cook a Chinese meal for my relations,
after considerable trouble getting the ingredients!

After nearly 18 years of marriage I still have little
conversational French - although on my visit some 12 years
ago I managed to hold my own in a day-long political
conversation with my new brothers-in-law. 'Twas all good
fun, and if my lungs can ever handle the pollution again
I'd like to come back.

Maybe even settle somewhere in the South, which seems to
be the favorite place for expatriate Aussies and Poms.

Hope you all have/had a very merry Christmas, and may
your New Year be all that you could wish for! Keep up the
good work Ric - I read the lot every week.

I have enjoyed reading your website since my wife and I
returned from our first trip to France in May 1999. I was
becoming a little lonesome for the finer things that we
enjoyed while in Paris and in the country and decided to go
surfing on the Internet to satisfy my longing. By chance I
happened on your website and have been captivated ever
since. Keep up the good and fun work!

Now, to the issue at hand, how we will spend our
Christmas. My wife and I are originally from Michigan. I
took a job in Chattanooga, TN a little over 12 years ago.
Needless to say it was quite a transition, but at this time
of year it is difficult to get used to a snowless Christmas
in Chattanooga.

So, we have developed our Christmas celebration into one
of culinary feats. After awaking, opening a few gifts from
the family - we have no children - enjoying a mimosa with
our scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, we settle into the
kitchen to prepare a dinner that we have selected from one
of Barbara's volume of cookbooks.

This Christmas it consists of an appetizer of smoked
salmon terrine with Christmas caviar sauce, followed by
grilled veal chops with asparagus and hollandaise sauce,
and whipped rutabaga. Also accompanying the dinner will be
Heavenly Delight - a fantastic Christmas style Jell-O
concoction - black olives, and fresh rolls. I can't say
what dessert will be because I don't know yet. We will have
a bottle of Morgan Pinot Noir with dinner and Courvousier
with our dessert coffee.

If we can walk from the table after dinner we shall then
clean the kitchen and retire to read one of the tens of
books that we've started over the course of the year but
have not finished.

That pretty well sums up our Christmas Day plans for
1999. We are contemplating buying a condominium in northern
Michigan and hopefully we will be able to write to you from
there next year amidst several feet of fresh snow.